The abundance of sulfur not only makes lithium-sulfur batteries cheaper to manufacture, but they also boast superior energy-storage capacity to current lithium-ion technologies. But one problem preventing practical deployment is polysulfide shuttling—when polysulfides formed during battery cycling escape the cathode and drift into unwanted areas and cause the battery to erode. Now, a group of researchers from Tohoku University has solved this problem with a molecularly designed covalent organic framework (COF)–graphene interlayer. Like a security checkpoint that both identifies threats and efficiently streams people where they need to go, the interlayer combines chemical trapping, rapid charge transport, and sulfur-conversion promotion. 

Magnets can store data – but there is a limit. To improve the data density of memory devices, researchers at Tohoku University delved into ways to exert precise control over a unique material called metallic helimagnets.

Located 1,000 meters underground in Japan, the Super-Kamiokande observatory strains to detect the faintest of signals amongst all sorts of noise: ghost-like neutrino particles. A recent analysis of 5,000 days of data provides an exciting, world-first indication of a flux of neutrinos called Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background (DSNB) – emitted by supernovae over cosmic history.

Masahiro Tatsumisago, Former OMU President and current Executive Advisor at Osaka Metropolitan University, has been selected for the NIMS Award 2026 from the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS).

Researchers at the University of Osaka developed a light-driven method for synthesizing Davis reagents that generates the hazardous oxidant mCPBA only on demand and consumes it immediately. Kinetic analysis showed no detectable accumulation of the oxidant, improving process safety. The reaction proceeds at room temperature in non-halogenated solvents and can use sunlight or LEDs, offering a safer, greener, and scalable alternative for pharmaceutical-related synthesis.

An international collaboration between Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa has successfully grown premium Japanese rice on Kauaʻi using water-saving upland methods. The rice matured one month faster than in Japan while achieving comparable yields and producing larger, higher-quality grains. This research demonstrates the potential to reestablish local rice production, enhance food security, and offer a sustainable farming model for water-scarce island regions.

Across cultures, the way we soothe an unsettled baby tends to look much the same: hold them close and gently rub their back. The act is so familiar that it's easy to forget how little is actually understood about why it works.

A research team led by researchers at Toho University in Japan has now put that everyday act to the test, comparing several spots a caregiver might stroke. One stood out: the back. Only back stroking reliably quieted infants' movements, and the same held true in newborn mice. In the mice, where the team could look in much more detail, this calming response turned out not to be built in at birth: it developed only in pups that had received normal maternal care, and it depended in part on a gene active in the hypothalamus, Cacna1b. The findings appear in Communications Biology.

In human infants, the team tracked one shared sign of calm — a drop in spontaneous movement. In mouse pups, back stroking did more: it slowed the heart, sped the onset of sleep, and blunted the surge of stress hormones that normally follows separation from the mother.